http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080118/hl_nm/birdflu_india_dc_3

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Indian health workers urged villagers at
the centre of a bird flu outbreak to stop dumping dead fowl in ponds
on Friday, as ignorance about the virus hampers efforts to contain its
spread.

The eastern state of West Bengal, where the latest outbreak of bird
flu has been reported in poultry, was to cull 400,000 chickens in a
week, but officials said the task may not be completed in even a
fortnight.

The virus has been detected in three districts where more than 60,000
birds have died, the agriculture ministry said.

But the ministry is also investigating suspicious bird deaths in three
other districts in the state, it said in a statement, including in
areas more than 300km (180 miles) away from earlier outbreaks.

The World Health Organization has described this outbreak as the most
serious yet seen in India, partly because it is spread over a large
area.

"It is alarming, but do not get panicked," Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,
West Bengal's chief minister, told reporters.

In many of the quarantined villages, bare-chested villagers in cotton
wraparounds picked dead birds with their hands and dumped them in
ponds, increasing the risk of the virus spreading.

Health and veterinary staff used loudspeakers in Margram village, the
epicenter of the outbreak, to ask people not to dump dead birds in
ponds and watertanks and report deaths in poultry.

"People's ignorance has compounded our problems and delayed culling of
birds," Anisur Rahaman, West Bengal animal resources minister, told
Reuters.

Volunteers told villagers, most of them uneducated and poor, of the
dangers of the virus and the precautions to be taken. At places,
smiling children were seen holding up dead birds with bare hands for
television cameras.

Many villagers continued to refuse to hand over their poultry to
veterinary staff for culling, saying the government compensation,
equal to about a dollar a bird, was not enough.

"There is a chance of contamination of water and the virus affecting
other bird species," a state health official said.

This is the fourth outbreak in India since 2006. No human infection
has been reported so far. Government officials believe it to be the
highly contagious H5N1 strain, although final laboratory results are
still pending. Scientists worry that H5N1 could mutate into a form
able to pass easily between humans.

Most of West Bengal's border with Bangladesh has been sealed after the
H5N1 virus spread to poultry in 25 of that country's 64 districts.

However India's animal husbandry secretary, Pradeep Kumar, said
sealing borders does little to limit the disease's spread. "Birds
don't observe borders," he said, before urging for greater cross-
border cooperation in controlling the disease.

Chicken and egg sales have dropped in West Bengal. Neighboring states
have banned its poultry products and army kitchens in the region have
stopped serving chicken.

*******

Comment:

The H5N1 Influenza has already mutated into a form able to pass easily
between humans on at least two well-documented instances.  The first
time in Indonesia in 2006 and the latest time in 2007 in Pakistan.  It
is but by the grace and mercy of LORD Almighty GOD that HE has not yet
allowed these two known instances to go beyond the respective
families.  My condolences to surviving friends and family involved.

Here is what we, who are medical professionals, are doing in our local
communities to prepare our neighbors, friends, and family for the
eventuality of a Pan-Flu:

http://TheWellnessFoundation.com/Pan-Flu

Would suggest usenet readers print out a copy of this post to
distribute to their own local physicians in hopes that they will
follow our example:

http://TheWellnessFoundation.com/TeamSamaritan

Be hungry... be healthy... be hungrier... be blessed:

http://TheWellnessFoundation.com/BeHealthy

Prayerfully in the infinite power and might of the Holy Spirit,

Andrew <><
--
Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD
Lawful steward of http://EmoryCardiology.com
Bondservant to the KING of kings and LORD of lords.